Android and the GPLv2 death penalty

We had a wonderful thread in the Open Hardware space recently when Bruce and a few others got very excited about the inability for copyright to apply to designs, and the problems this might pose for open hardware licenses. I pointed out then what I'm going to point out here: all of this is fantastical discussion, but that's all it is. Licenses like the GPL set various expectations, and are mostly enforced through the community and public relations impact upon those who are deemed in "violation". There aren't millions of cases in the courts because most of the time human beings can figure things out without getting excited about litigation possibilities that aren't likely to happen.